Gorongosa's Water Cycle
Resource Type
Duration
00:02:15Description
This animation illustrates the main stages of the water cycle in Gorongosa National Park, an ecosystem that experiences both wet and dry seasons.
Gorongosa National Park sits at the southern end of Africa’s Great Rift Valley in Mozambique. The park surrounds a large lake and lies beneath a mountain that rises almost 2000 meters above sea level. The animation shows how, during the wet season, moisture from the Indian Ocean ends up as rainfall in the park. During the dry season, water that was captured by the mountain is gradually released into the park.
Depending on students’ background, it may be helpful to pause the animation at various points to discuss different components and effects of the park’s water cycle.
Key Terms
Africa, biosphere, climate, flooding, orthographic precipitation, rainfall, reservoir, savanna, season
Terms of Use
The resource is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. No rights are granted to use HHMI’s or BioInteractive’s names or logos independent from this Resource or in any derivative works.